[flight_from_kamakura]

^ really quick: government revenues are up, the government expects growth to drop to a mere 3-3.5%, and that $1 trillion (or whatever) in capitalization loss doesn't have anything to do with the country's productivity or whatever. the government has the situation well underhand, foreign direct investment and technological modernization are continuing apace, and exports are stronger now (at least in volume terms, rather than dollar terms) than they've ever been. the fundamentals of this economy are strong.